How Ukraine and its companions are tackling a human-capital disaster.
“The total-scale invasion has closed the Ukrainian sky. And worldwide bus drivers are amongst those that maintain households and friendships collectively, and affect a whole lot of hundreds of Ukrainians’ lives,” stated Yulia, a Ukrainian lady who had lately accomplished a course to assist her get hold of a bus driver’s license, and now works for a world transportation firm.
Yulia’s is among the success tales featured on the web site of Reskilling Ukraine, a Swedish nonprofit that gives free skilled coaching to Ukrainian girls and veterans. The initiative addresses a human capital disaster pushed by destruction, displacement, and big lack of inhabitants since Russia launched its all-out assault in February 2022.
Getting the Wheels Turning
Reskilling Ukraine rolled out its first coaching program for girls, OnTrack, in 2023. Contributors can get hold of business licenses to drive vehicles and buses, function building tools, work as mechanics, or set up photo voltaic crops. Funding comes primarily from the Swedish authorities, and the group is an offshoot of Beredskapslyftet, a bigger Swedish nonprofit.
“After understanding and doing a little analysis in Ukraine, we noticed that there’s a enormous demand for brand new professionals inside some industries,” stated Viktoria Posieva, the group’s media contact.
Transportation and logistics are such industries – impacted each by the battle and by the legacy of longstanding gender-based laws and stereotypes. Till 2017, a Soviet-era mandate barred girls from round 450 professions in Ukraine. Whereas the World Financial institution and different companions have labored on “lifting authorized obstacles” particularly in “sectors that had the very best variety of bans, corresponding to transport and logistics,” girls nonetheless face “smooth” obstacles to entry into these fields, according to the financial institution.
“We had some driving colleges that stated, ‘Okay, this [initiative] will not be for us as a result of we don’t suppose girls ought to drive large vehicles,’ ” Posieva stated. “However in the case of now it’s all easy as a result of folks see the outcomes.”
Greater than 100 girls skilled by the group now work as truck or bus drivers, embarking on expeditions via Ukraine and surrounding international locations.
“The typical age of our graduates is 42, so it’s middle-aged girls,” stated Posieva. “Usually, they’re married. They’ve, for instance, a husband serving within the navy, or they served within the navy earlier than. They’re internally displaced. So that they see this as a possibility to be on their very own, to be on the street, to do one thing necessary for the nation.”
The roles usually include extra monetary safety than different work. “In Ukraine, you possibly can earn extra as a truck driver than a college instructor,” Posieva added.
For some, this system provides readability, even when the street leads elsewhere. “Generally we have now girls who’ve excessive motivations and so they go into the [training] and so they perceive, ‘No, it’s not for me.’”
Ukraine’s freight transportation market is short around 40,000 drivers, leaving 30% of vehicles idle, Deputy Minister of Communities and Territories Serhiy Derkach informed Ukrinform in July. The passenger transportation market is equally facing a scarcity of 6,000 staff.
The ministry’s personal response to this challenge was a mission known as She Drives, coaching girls for careers in both passenger transportation or trucking with programs to acquire class D or class C/CE licenses.
The coaching course for trucking confronted an unsure destiny in January 2025 when USAID funding was reduce. About 20% of the 100 members have been left stranded with incomplete coaching, based on the She Drives crew. The initiative was reinstated after United Nations Ladies stepped in and reallocated funds together with worldwide companions, and the ladies have been in a position to get hold of licenses.
As of August 2025, 11 graduates are employed within the passenger transport sector, an trade that has solely round 1% girls workers thus far, based on the She Drives crew. This system now provides Code 95 Certification, permitting for service all through the EU along with Ukraine.
Increasing for Veterans
In 2025, Reskilling Ukraine expanded with the launch of Unit 6.0, a brand new program devoted to veterans. It at the moment provides two coaching programs: one to grow to be a photo voltaic plant installer and one other to grow to be a profession counselor for fellow veterans.
The veterans’ course teaches the foundations for a profession serving to former troopers reenter the job market: experience in analyzing the labor market, working with shoppers, and offering recommendation on constructing a resume. The following sensible part permits every scholar to achieve expertise via an internship at an organization.
Although nonetheless in its early phases, the initiative has already made an influence, says the group.
Posieva shared the story of a former English instructor from western Ukraine who joined the navy after the full-scale invasion. “When he got here again, he went via our training [program] to grow to be a profession marketing consultant after he was suggested by his spouse,” she stated.
Following the coaching, he accomplished an internship at a world electronics firm with operations in Ukraine.
“After this internship, he received a job as a chief veteran’s officer in a manufacturing unit. It was an enormous success for us.” These in such positions assist non-public firms discover expertise coming back from the entrance strains, and supply a help community for veterans inside the firm.
That helps veterans transition to civilian careers, however are additionally beneficial for one more purpose. “Veteran’s officers can join and might speak to these actively serving within the navy so [the soldiers] can really feel related to their earlier workplaces and colleagues,” stated Posieva. To date, 36 veterans have undergone coaching with Unit 6.0.
A authorities ballot of veterans discovered that simply 2.9% of Ukraine’s 1.2 to 1.3 million veterans have obtained any form of reskilling support, based on Oleg Shymanski, Ukraine’s deputy minister for veteran affairs. “We have to work with veterans whereas they’re nonetheless within the navy,” Shymanski stated at July’s 2025 Ukraine Restoration Convention. Unit 6.0’s graduates might be amongst these serving to to construct channels for veterans to search out work after service.
Reskilling Ukraine’s in-person coaching programs are held each in Kyiv and the Ternopil area in western Ukraine. However for a lot of, the capital is now not a viable possibility. “A variety of candidates say, ‘Can I please journey to the western half?’ as a result of they know that the western half is safer than Kyiv,” stated Posieva. “And now, generally candidates simply refuse to go to Kyiv, due to heavy bombing each week.”
To navigate these dangers, the group has carried out security protocols for when the air raid sirens sound, though as Posieva famous, “I’m Ukrainian myself, and everyone knows what to do.”
The Large Image
Tackling endemic corruption and embracing a private-sector-led financial system are key for Ukraine to catch as much as EU members in financial efficiency, based on World Bank Managing Director of Operations Anna Bjerde, talking, like Shymanski on the 2025 Ukraine Restoration Convention.
Bjerde confused that main challenges will should be overcome alongside this street. “First is the destruction of capital and acute labor shortages that constrain progress.”
The shortage of each expert and unskilled labor has hobbled the financial system since independence in 1991 as millions have emigrated both seasonally or completely for jobs, many going to Central Europe or additional west. The battle multiplied these losses many occasions over: 3.7 million internally displaced folks, 6.9 million overseas, and round 1 million lively navy personnel, based on the International Organization for Migration.
Deputy Prime Minister Oleksei Chernishov has additionally underscored the human aspect of this problem: “human capital is the first supply that prompts each monetary and technological capital, particularly in occasions of disaster.”
Reskilling Ukraine and She Drives are working beside different employment efforts from the EU; the United Nations Development Program; and International Organization for Migration. The mission is about greater than filling vacancies – it’s about providing function and resilience for the people who’re rebuilding Ukraine amid battle.
William Kirkiles was an intern this summer time at Transitions. He’s getting into his sophomore 12 months at Brown College.
Pictures, besides prime picture, are courtesy of Reskilling Ukraine.
